


welcome to the family

by orangevenus



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/F, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route Spoilers, Fix-It, Happy Ending, Requited Love, Support Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-10 08:42:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20132590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orangevenus/pseuds/orangevenus
Summary: “I know that Galatea doesn’t have nearly the riches nor prestige as Gautier or Fraldarius, b-but-“(Dorothea wonders if she has ever heard Ingrid stutter once in all the years they’ve known each other.)“But all the same. You would have a place to call home once the war is over, if you wanted.”





	welcome to the family

**Author's Note:**

> [♫](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExEkimzh3YQ)   
_Get hitched in a chapel in Vegas_   
_Maybe get rich, life is a craps game_   
_And I take my cue, from you_   
_On what you wanna do 'bout a last name_
> 
> thank you [@treplevin](https://twitter.com/treplevin) for taking my bad words and making them good.

Another funeral, another dirge. Funeral singers are not for the dead, Dorothea finds. They are for the living. She sings, the living cry, and the dead are too long departed from this earth to hear her voice.

She shakes the hands of the family afterward. She says she’s so sorry for their loss; she pats the shoulder of the father, and consoles the mother. 

She thinks that parents should not have to bury their children.

It is late by the time she is able to get away. She is too worn down to go to the dining hall, but her mind is too full of buzzing thoughts to go to bed. And so she wanders through the monastery, the paths empty of merchants and soldiers save for the occasional guard. She feels like one of the dead herself, a ghost haunting these hallowed grounds.

She finds herself on the pier, her eyes drawn to the moonlight sparkling on the water. She glances up at the sky, at the constellations threaded through the stars. The heavens were hidden behind the night, where the goddess supposedly watches over them.

Could she see her from up there? Could she see the way her heart was crumbling in her chest, every time she had to sing at another soldier’s funeral?

Something unthinking happens, under that night sky with only the moon and the stars as witnesses: Dorothea clasps her hands in front of her, and gives a silent prayer.

_Goddess, if you really do exist… if you really are out there. Please. Do something. Save your children._

-

The show must go on, they say. And while her heart is heavy with every soul she has had to sing for in the past few months, she still shows up for the church’s opera production. It’s hilariously quaint compared to the performances she has put on in the past, but, as Alois once said during rehearsal, “We need to give everyone something to smile about! To take their minds off the war!”

Dorothea agrees; it’s why she’s doing this in the first place. Not for everyone else’s sake- for her own.

So she plays her part to perfection, hitting all the right notes at all the right times. Raphael, playing the part of the handsome commoner, is not… quite as perfect, but she’s having more fun than she has in years. And when she lets her eyes shift across the faces in the audience, she spies a familiar head of blond hair sitting in the third row.

Her heart flutters, and she can’t stop the smile that spreads across her face.

Once they have all taken their bows, the crowd and the actors begin to mingle, slowly making their way towards the sound of Alois’ voice, shouting something or other. Dorothea smiles and graciously accepts everyone's compliments, but she is waiting for one person in particular…

“Dorothea!”

She turns, already smiling. "Ingrid! Hello, I-"

And she stops, suddenly lost for words as her eyes alight on her Ingrid. She was wearing the dress Dorothea had picked out for her- not too long, so as not to hinder her movement, but not so short that the poor dear would be self-conscious. It was just the right shade of green to bring out the color in her eyes, too. She had been modest with her makeup, but she didn't need much to turn heads in the first place. She was even wearing the heels she had initially wrinkled her nose at- though (Dorothea noticed, smugly), even while wearing them, she still isn’t eye level with the songstress.

She looks just as bewitching as Dorothea knew she would. Enchanting, even.

Dorothea doesn’t realize that she’s gawking until Ingrid begins fidgeting. "Do I look okay? I can go back and change if it looks that bad-"

"No! No. I'm sorry my dear, you just look absolutely stunning. Why, I must be the luckiest person in the world, to have such a pretty girl come visit me after the curtain call." She winks, and, are her eyes deceiving her? Is Ingrid Galatea _blushing?_

Be still, her heart. She might not last the night at this rate.

"Dorothea, please. There's no need for all the flattery."

"It's not flattery if it's true." Dorothea reaches out to loop her arm through Ingrid's. "Now then! Shall we go get dinner?"

Ingrid nods, eyes sparkling. "Yes, please, I'm starving! Your performance was amazing, but..."

"It did go on a little long, didn't it?" Dorothea pats Ingrid on the arm consolingly. "Don't worry darling, we had the kitchens prepare a feast for us. It was Alois' idea, he said it would entice more people to come!"

Ingrid laughs, and goddess, Dorothea will never tire of that sound. "Well, if I had known there would be free food..."

"Ingrid! Are you saying you wouldn't have come if I hadn't personally invited you?" Dorothea feigns shock, the lilt in her voice teasing.

Ingrid chuckles, turning to grin at Dorothea as she replies, "I'm just kidding. Of course I would have come, free food or not."

Dorothea hums thoughtfully, before continuing, "You know, Ingrid... I don't think I've seen you smile and laugh this much in a long time."

Ingrid blinks at that, before turning her eyes down. "Ah, well. War will suck the joy out of anyone, won't it?"

Dorothea's mind turns to the funeral. She nods.

"But you know... I find it easier to laugh and smile when you're around, Dorothea." Ingrid glances back up at her, a shy little smile on her lips. "I suppose you just remind me of what joy feels like again."

_Ah._ There it is: her heart threatening to beat itself out of her chest. How is it that Dorothea could smirk and laugh off come-ons from men and women across all of Fódlan, but the sincerity of one woman from Faerghus could have the Mittlefrank Opera Company's brightest star blushing like a schoolgirl? It wasn't fair!

"I... I feel much the same, Ingrid. Your presence sets my mind at ease. I feel safe with you around. Like maybe..." She swallows, no longer able to look Ingrid in the eye. "Like maybe everything is going to be okay in the end, after all."

They stop walking now; echoes from the after party fill the cathedral, but in that moment, it feels like they are the only two in the world. Ingrid faces Dorothea, and takes both her hands in her own.

"Everything _is_ going to be okay, Dorothea. I promise."

Dorothea doesn't believe in a lot of things. She doesn't believe in the church, or the goddess, or even herself. But Ingrid is so earnest and so certain of her words, that when Dorothea looks up into Ingrid's eyes, she finds that she can't help but believe in her.

-

Sleep often eluded Dorothea these days; she relied on extra concealer to cover the dark circles under her eyes. Hilda once compared makeup to armor, and Dorothea couldn’t help but agree. It protected her from prying questions and worry over her wellbeing.

She stayed up long into the night in a vain attempt to avoid the terrors that awaited her once she closed her eyes. Tonight was no different; she was reading a book of sheet music she had borrowed from Manuela. It was something new to learn and memorize. It was something to concentrate on, instead of letting her thoughts wander to places she did not want to go.

A knock at her door very nearly gives Dorothea a heart attack; she clutched at her chest, eyes wide as she turns to look at the door. T-This could only be bad news, right? She walks towards the door slowly, dread weighing down her limbs-

And finds Ingrid waiting outside, concern written across her face.

Dorothea blinks, before reaching up to brush her hair out of her face, all at once aware of just how disheveled she must look. “I-Ingrid! It’s so late, I thought-”

“Ah, my apologies, I saw the light under your door and thought to check in on you.” Ingrid peers closer at her face- and Dorothea suddenly realizes that Ingrid looked entirely too put together to have just rolled out of bed for a midnight stroll.

She steps back, holding the door open and silently inviting the knight into her room. Ingrid enters, and Dorothea can finally get a good look at her face- she has hair sticking to her skin. She must have been training. Everything clicked into place for Dorothea all at once.

“You too, huh?” She asks, smiling sadly. There’s a pause, before Ingrid nods.

“It’s hard to sleep these days. My thoughts are too loud.” Ingrid grimaces. “Please don’t tell the others I said that, though. They would never let me live it down if they thought I was being soft.”

Dorothea laughs low in her throat. “Don’t worry, my dear. Your secret is safe with me.”

There is another pause, before Ingrid breaks the silence. “There’s something I’ve actually been meaning to talk to you about for a while now. Is now a good time?”

“Now’s as good a time as any.” Dorothea grins, though her stomach flips anxiously as worst case scenarios begin to flood her mind.

Ingrid is watching her, carefully, as if trying to decipher whether Dorothea was telling the truth. Finally, she sighs and glances away. “Do you remember what you told me, when I asked you why you decided to come to the Officer’s Academy five years ago?”

Dorothea blinks, eyebrows raised in surprise; that conversation seemed so long ago now. “Yes, I remember. It was for the sake of my future… to figure out what I wanted for myself, as well as find myself a rich spouse to take care of me for the rest of my life.”

It seemed as if it was from a past life.

Ingrid nods. “And have you found it? The future you were looking for?”

Dorothea stares at Ingrid, heat suddenly rushing to her face at the thought that, in a perfect world, maybe--

But that was just another pipe dream. Reality was not so kind.

And so she shakes her head, trying to smile despite herself. “All I want right now is to see myself and my friends safely through the war. Everything else will just have to wait until after that.”

Ingrid’s eyes are so soft; Dorothea feels like she is drowning.

“I feel the same way. I’ve been thinking though, about my future after the war. And… about you.”

Her heart skips a beat in her chest, she swears it.

“I know that Galatea doesn’t have nearly the riches nor prestige as Gautier or Fraldarius, b-but-“

(Dorothea wonders if she has ever heard Ingrid stutter once in all the years they’ve known each other.)

“But all the same. You would have a place to call home once the war is over, if you wanted.”

Dorothea parts her lips to reply, but can’t form any words around the lump in her throat. To think, a diva who couldn’t find her voice- it would be funny, if her eyes weren’t misting over with tears.

“Ingrid, nothing would make me happier. But… I know your dream. You wish to become a knight. And I-“ Her hands are shaking. She clasps them in front of her, as if she was praying once again. “If I were to go with you- if I were to call your house my home- I cannot be left wondering every night if you will return to me alive or dead.”

She looks up, because if she casts her eyes down, surely her tears will begin to spill over.

“I can’t live with that uncertainty, Ingrid.”

Despite her serious nature, Ingrid has always been an open book. For all her attempts at stoicism, she could not hide the crushed expression that passes across her face. It breaks Dorothea’s heart. “I- I understand. I know how tired of all the fighting you are. This was selfish of me, I’m sorry. Please, forget I said anything.”

She’s turning away, and Dorothea is moving without thinking, her hand reaching out to her.

“Ingrid-”

She grabs her arm; she knows Ingrid has the strength to break free, if she wanted.

She doesn’t.

Dorothea swallows thickly. Her vision has cleared. She smiles at her with trembling lips.

“I would never ask you to choose between me or your dream.” 

Ingrid turns to face her fully, a worried frown on her face; her fingers gently brush the tears off of Dorothea’s cheek. Dorothea catches her hand in her own- their fingers intertwine, as Dorothea takes a shaky breath.

“I love you, Ingrid. And I want you to be happy. I want you to achieve your dream, and I… I want to be right there by your side, every step of the way.”

“But you said-”

“Because I want you to know how I feel. I want you to understand that you must do everything in your power, every day that you are serving His Majesty, to come home to me hale and hearty.”

She squeezes Ingrid’s fingers, smiling softly.

“If you do not, I will be extremely cross with you. And I would hate to be mad at you, my darling Ingrid.”

Ingrid squeezes back, her bottom lip trembling as she, too, smiles. “Dorothea, I- I promise. I’ll always come back to you. And I love you too. I’m so sorry that it took me so long to realize.”

Dorothea purses her lips. “Now now, that’s enough apologizing. You should know that I would have waited forever for you.”

The words are off her lips before she can think them over- they surprise her. She finds, however, that they are true.

_She would have waited a hundred lifetimes for her Ingrid._

-

After the war’s end, Ingrid became a knight sworn to House Blaiddyd. Between her duties as the captain of the pegasus knights and as the head of House Galatea, she was always kept busy, but had the help of her wife, Dorothea, every step of the way. Dorothea, the new Countess of Galatea, worked tirelessly with Ingrid and the people of the Galatea territory to restore prosperity to the region. She would eventually start her own opera company in the castle town, which brought an influx of tourists to Galatea the likes of which had never been seen before. The two adopted many of the children left orphaned by the war; theirs was a loud but happy home.

**Author's Note:**

> hi! thanks for reading. i haven't written fic in 800 years but when i found out dorothea and ingrid didn't have an a support after that gay ass paralogue i decided to be the change i want to see in the world. comments appreciated.


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